Bodies, Borders, Believers

This stimulating collection of essays by prominent scholars honors Turid Karlsen Seim. Bodies, Borders, Believers brings together biblical scholars, ecumenical theologians, archeologists, classicists, art historians, and church historians, working side by side to probe the past and its receptions in the present. The contributions relate in one way or another to Seim's broad research interests, covering such themes as gender analysis, bodily practices, and ecumenical dialogue. The editors have brought together an international group of scholars, and among the contributors many scholarly traditions, theoretical orientations, and methodological approaches are represented, making this book an interdisciplinary and border-crossing endeavor. A comprehensive bibliography of Seim's work is included. "These articles refuse to be segregated on one side of any border, present conversations setting parameters for complementary readings of Scriptures, ancient texts complicating contemporary categories, thus embodying the pioneering spirit of the scholar honored by this strong, consistent, genre-defying collection." --Jennifer A. Glancy, author of Slavery in Early Christianity and Corporal Knowledge: Early Christian Bodies "A tribute to the first woman with a doctoral degree in theology from a Norwegian university, by some of her students and colleagues. The volume showcases the broad orientation of Seim's theological interests spanning from exegesis via social reception history to ecumenical theology. It also presents samples of what is by now a coherent trajectory: the 'Oslo School' of gender-critical work on early Christian texts--one of whose main inspirations is professor Seim herself!" --Jorunn Okland, Professor of Interdisciplinary Gender Studies in the Humanities, University of Oslo "In this remarkable collection, international scholars of the Bible, church history, art history, classics, archaeology, and ecumenical dialogue follow Seim's model of nuanced interpretation in The Double Message: Patterns of Gender in Luke-Acts. Luke features women prominently but simultaneously subordinates them. In this volume, scholars take the body seriously as a site for theologizing; explore the borders between life and death, women and men, and Christians and Muslims; and discuss how belief can unite, not just divide." --Bernadette J. Brooten, Robert and Myra Kraft Professor of Christian Studies and Professor of Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, of Classical Studies, and of Religious Studies, Brandeis University Anne Hege Grung is Associate Professor in Practical Theology at the Practical Theological Seminary in Oslo. She is the author of Gender Justice in Muslim-Christian Readings (forthcoming). Marianne Bjelland Kartzow is Professor of New Testament Studies at the Faculty of Theology, University of Oslo, Norway. She is the author of Gossip and Gender (2009) and Destabilizing the Margins (Pickwick Publications, 2012). Anna Rebecca Solevag is Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the School of Mission and Theology, Stavanger, Norway. She is the author of Birthing Salvation (2013).